Censoring the Censors in the WTO - Southwestern Law School

42 J. Int’l Media & Entertainment Law Vol. 3, No. 1
cation that “criticizes Islam, the emir, the constitution or the neutrality
of the courts or public prosecutor’s office.” 136 It also forbids any expression
or publication that constitutes an “incitement to acts that will offend
public morality” 137 as well as any content that is offensive to “religious
sensibilities, public morality, and the ‘basic convictions of the state.’ ” 138
In fact, the 56 nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference currently
are lobbying a committee of the U.N. to adopt an “anti-blasphemy
treaty” that would ban any criticism or mockery of a religious symbol or
belief. 139 Recent examples of countries enforcing such laws include the
refusal of several countries to permit the publication or dissemination of
cartoons (originally published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
in 2005 ) that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad 140 and the recent closure
of a radio station in Saudi Arabia because it had broadcast an interview
of a Saudi man “speaking frankly about sex and show[ing] off erotic
toys,” according to a spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Culture and
Information. 141
Given the pervasive nature of such censorship restrictions in the world
as well as the ubiquity of Western media products, it would seem only
a matter of time before a WTO member challenging a particular prohibited
content law in the WTO would argue that the nation enforcing
that law cannot rely on the public morals exception because it cannot
prove that a majority of the people in that nation hold the moral belief
that it is asserting. For example, Kazakhstan (as well as Russia, Jordan,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar 142 ) banned Borat , British comedian
Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical depiction of “a bumbling, boorish,
anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic Kazakh television reporter
named Borat Sagdiyev.” 143 However, at least some residents of Kaza-
136. U.S. Department of State, Doing Business In: Kuwait, available at http://
ww.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100599.htm (accessed Dec. 21, 2009).
137. Id.
138. Id.
139. See, e.g., Anti-blasphemy Treaty Sought, San Diego Union Trib., November 20,
2009, at A12.
140. See, e.g., Austin Cline, Danish Cartoons of Muhammad: We Have a
Right to Criticize & Comment on Islam, available at http://atheism.about.com/od/
danishcartoonsofmuhammad/p/DanishCartoons.htm (accessed Dec. 21, 2009).
141. Frank Sex Talk Gets Arab TV Office closed, San Diego Union Trib., Aug. 10,
2009, at A9.
142. Borat Banned in Russia and Elsewhere, thefileroom.org, available at http://www.
thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/1035 (accessed Dec. 21, 2009).
143. Steven Lee Myers, Kazahkstan Laughs As Its Officials Try to Ban Borat—
Europe—International Herald Trib., nytimes.com, available at http://www.nytimes.
com/2006/09/27/world/europe/27iht-borat.2952940.html_r=1&pagewanted=print
(accessed Dec. 21, 2009) [hereinafter “Myers”].
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